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If our two-hour interview is any indication, Tracey Azzopardi has no negative words in her vocabulary. Looking over my notes in preparing this article, I can't help but be impressed by the list of positive expressions dotted throughout: variety, diversity, challenging, opportunity, exposure to new tasks, learning experience (in a positive way!), networking, passionate, enthusiastic, energetic, ... and the list goes on.

Like many school leavers, Tracey wasn't sure of her career path as the HSC approached. She knew she didn't want to study full time and she also knew that education was important. So while she was pondering her future, Tracey enrolled in a traineeship, attending TAFE studying office and clerical skills two days a week and working in the workplace for the other three days.

The traineeship was a great fit and led to a career within the company that was to last 12 years. Tracey joined Totalflow Logistics Services, a privately-owned third-party logistics provider (3PL). For the duration of the traineeship (one year). the combination of study and work proved successful, as in 1993 Tracey won the NSW Trainee of the Year Award together with an Oustanding Acheivement Award. She then went on to win the National Trainee of the Year Award in the same year, which led to a whirlwind of media engagements and interviews across the country as politicians all over basked in her reflected glory. Not bad for an 18-year-old school leaver.

No time to stand still

Most of us seem to be content to fill in 24 hours each day, but for Tracey Azzopardi the clock face must have a few extra numerals on it. In the next twelve years, Tracey completed an Associate Diploma in Business Management (Logistics), rose from being a trainee through Logistics Coordinator to Operations Manager with one, two, then progressively all eight warehouses of the company being brought under her management, and by the time she left the company (in effect as 2IC to the MD and owner), Tracey had implemented and maintained IS09002 quality assurance certification, was involved in the selection and commissioning of a new Berger (now Advanta) ERP system, managed up to 80 warehouse staff, designed and implemented warehouses from pick-face design to racking layout and order flow management, and managed transfers of clients from their previous 3PLs to Totalflow.

The telling factor is not what Tracey had put into her job, but what she feels she's got out of it. "Overall my years at the 3PL were extremely educational and rewarding. I was learning new things every day, I was asking for, and was given, new tasks, new challenges all the time. We had lots of different customers, all with different needs, wants, and challenges. We were a specialist provider looking after dangerous goods, pharmaceutical raw materials and the like. They all needed different handling, different KPIs, and we had to make sure that we effectively communicated with each and every customer. Then there were the warehouse staff to manage, we had up to 80 people at our peak, from different backgrounds and education levels. On any morning I could be accompanying the MD to present to a multi-million dollar potential new account, and in the afternoon training warehouse staff in new picking and sorting technologies." Diverse callenges indeed.

You can't hold me down

Tracey and her employer both knew that if Tracey was going to fulfil her potential she had to go on to bigger add different challenges. As Operations Manager, Tracey had learnt just about all there was to learn in a privately owned, niche 3PL, and as 2IC she had had significant exposure to sales and marketing as well as financial management. But the time had come to spread her wings.

"I applied for this job as it was the next logical step, and I wanted a national role," says Tracey. "After I had gone through the interview process I knew instinctively that it was the right job, and most importantly, the right company, for me. The recruitment firm rang and said that they had had positive feedback from the employer. It was a Friday afternoon and I just couldn't wait the whole weekend to find out."

The rest, as they say, is history. Tracey joined Synthes, a global medical device company supplying surgical implants and instruments. When Tracey asked how many forklifts they operated, she was led into a spotless, carpeted, but by 3PL standards, tiny warehouse where row upon tidy row of cabinets hold a multitude of either sterile, or at least individually sealed items.

"The compact size of the warehouse is deceiving as a measure of the activity within," says Tracey. "We have over 5,000 individual line Items (SKUs) and over 75,000 items. We don't only track at item level but also at lot level and expiry date for sterile products." This means that every single item must be able to be traced back to date of manufacture, sterility expiry as well as item number.

Whilst consumer goods are despatched to the retailer once and mostly forgotten, surgical supplies have a number of added complexities associated with them. "We have three channels for supplying to customers," says Tracey. "Some items are purchased by hospitals outright, to replenish their own shelf stock, which is fairly straightforward. Then we send out goods on consignment, and charge hospitals as they order replenishment stock to replace what they have used from the consignment set. Then there are loan sets. These are kits made up to cater for specific cases. A hospital may receive an accident victim, for example, with an injury to the leg. We have a loan set that contains all the implants (screws plates & nails) and instruments, for the sugical procedure as well as guidance material for such an event. Because we don't know in advance the age, sex and size of the patient, the set contains an assortment of shapes and sizes to cover all eventualities. These sets can be dispatched at short notice and in many cases are delivered to hospitals nationally within one hour of receiving the request. What they don't use is returned and they are charged only for what is used . But it means that we have to assemble and track a set that can consist of up to a hundred items or so, and some of the items within must be date-controlled whilst others must be checked for sterilisation status and so on and be complete when despatched."

Room to move

It didn't take long for Tracey to make her mark. "I am an organised person, and I have clearly defined personal objectives and goals that I want to achieve," says Tracey. So does Synthes. The company has successfully fulfilled its goal of doubling turnover over three years and has set an equally demanding objective for the next three. Tracey's contribution in the first period was to lift order fill rates from 94% to the current 98.5%. "We have a good operations team," says Tracey. "After I started we did some reorganisation, and we've got a good mix of long-standing and experienced staff together with some newer ones, so all of the operations processes run smoothly."

Orders are keyed into the Berger/Advanta ERP system, by customer service staff, which are downloaded to the pickers' RF handheld scanners. Orders are picked as they arrive, there is no set picking time. As there are only a limited number of hospitals, orders are easily consolidated before the daily despatch. And even though regular deliveries are done through normal express freight providers, Synthes insists on using its own branded satchels. "If we put our delivery in a transport provider's satchel it's just another delivery. But when hospital staff see a Synthes satchel, they know it contains surgical goods and that a surgeon may be waiting for them in the operating theatre," says Tracey.

After making her mark in operations and continuing to enjoy the critical role she plays in the company's success, Tracey is keen to spread her wings further. As part of the four-member executive team (MD, finance, sales, operations), there are countless opportunities for Tracey to expand her business knowledge. "On a personal level, I have started a four-year MBA at Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM). I have a sound operational background but there is so much more I can learn about all other aspects of running a business."

On an organisational level, Synthes has recognised Tracey's potential, and management - both local and Asia-Pacific - has entrusted her with assignments not normally the purview of operational staff. Tracey has just completed a comprehensive revision of Synthes business processes, followed by a recently completed national road show visiting all branches, with the MD, including the promotion of how things are done at Synthes.

"I also get involved in budgeting, forecasting, and generally everything that has to do with running the business. I am young and I want to learn, so I ask a lot of questions. Management recognise this and I don't get into trouble if occasionally I ask a seemingly dumb question."

For the greater good

At some time early in her career, Tracey was introduced to the Logistics Association of Australia. "I went along to a dinner meeting and I was introduced to all these wonderful people who were enthusiastic about the asociation, the industry. Being a young person, and a female at that, they were keen for me to feel welcome and made sure I was involved and included, quite something for a traditionally middle-aged-male dominated industry."

Before long, Tracey was elected to the NSW committee and took on various organisational tasks ranging from activities to the Friends of the LAA program. "The LAA was such a wonderful networking and educational forum for everybody involved," says Tracey. "I was honoured to meet all these people - presenters, academics, seasoned logistics industry figures who were genuinely passionate about the industry - and have the opportunity to learn, to network, to expand my horizons."

After a number of years of service on the LAA executive, Tracey had to make the painful decision to reduce her involvement. "After I started the MBA course I had to review my other commitments," she says.

The ultimate reward

"A job is not the beginning and definitely not the end," says Tracey. "You can either go in to your workplace in the morning, leave in the evening and be absolutley miserable for eight or nine hours a day, every day. Or you can go there with an open mind and say, 'how can I do my job better?' For me, my job is an opportunity to acheive satisfaction in doing my immediate work well, and most importantly, my job is also an opportunity to branch out, expand my horizons, learn everything there is to know about the business."

Tracey's acheivements in her logistics career, together with her invaluable contributions to the LAA, were recognised last year when she was awarded the Mike Munns Young Acheiver of the Year Award at the Logistics Association of Australia's National Supply Chain Awards. "I'm hoping the winning of this award might encourage some employers wh read about it, to support, nurture and encourage their young logistics employees in their career, and to encourage them to join and develop with the LAA," says Tracey.

Tracey is passionate about her job, her career, and the betterment of herself as a supply chain professional. But the power of her ambition lies not in a misguided desire to get ahead at all costs. Tracey's example shows that young age and gender are no impediment to a full, satisfying, and rewarding career if you exhibit a genuine willingness to learn all that is within - and beyond! - your job description. Tracey has plans and ambitions go far beyond her current role, and we wish her every success to reach those goals. After all, the supply chain IS big business, and there is no reason why a career in supply chain management should not lead to bigger and better things - all the way to the top.

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